Group Helps Heal Wounds Of Polio Virus

Linda Scott got up out of her motorized wheelchair to answer the phone.

After a brief conversation, she hung up and stiffly retraced her steps to the discussion going on around a table 20 feet away. Sitting back down, she had a question for a woman near her. “Kay, how are your legs doing?”

Scott and about 40 others were gathered in a fifth-floor conference room at the Shriners Hospital for a meeting of Polio Outreach of Spokane, a support group for people coping with post-polio syndrome.

The monthly get-togethers are an opportunity to share information and offer insights. But mostly they are a chance to talk to others who’ve been there.

“There’s a lot of caring in this room,” said Scott, 48. “Did you notice all the hugs?”

Post-polio syndrome - fatigue, muscle weakness and pain - hits an unknown percentage of people who were afflicted with the polio virus long ago but had gone on to live largely symptom-free lives. Individual experiences vary widely.

Some of the meetings feature presentations from speakers such as physicians, physical therapists and wheelchair-repair specialists. But Tuesday night’s format called for dividing into smaller groups. At one table, relatives of those suffering from PPS talked about their special concerns. At another, people - most in wheelchairs - talked about pacing and maintaining a sense of self-control. And so on.

“The biggest misconception people have is that you have to look like you have a problem for this to be an issue,” said PPS sufferer Dave Graham. “And that’s not the case.”

At one table there was dark laughter about how, several years ago during that really stormy winter, more than a few Spokane restaurants and other businesses plowed parkinglot snow into tall mounds atop the handicapped parking spaces.

It wasn’t whining. It was talking about making it through the day.

All disease-related support groups can offer meaningful experiences. But those with PPS know their problems will never be a high priority for medical research. Because, in America at least - where polio was essentially snuffed out, the delayed-reaction syndrome will be all but gone when these men and women are.

“We need each other,” said Scott.

, DataTimes MEMO: Being There is a weekly feature that visits gatherings in the Inland Northwest.

This sidebar appeared with the story: FYI To find out about Polio Outreach of Spokane, call (509) 328-9044.